9-16-08...WORK
A couple of boys came to our door yesterday and asked if we had any work for them. That was sad to me. They said their Parents sent them. I know the Parents and I see them working and hiring others to help them. These boys just ride up and down the road all day on their motor bikes. When did things change so drastically. I figure the Parents can't get much work out of these boys and have to hire help. Then they send them to neighbors begging for work for us to pay them when we probably couldn't get any work out of them either. Brenda and I and our Brothers worked at home. If we worked anywhere else Daddy took us with him to pick strawberries, cotton, cucumbers, peas, peaches, grapes, ect. We bought school clothes with this money. We still worked at home. It was our home too my Daddy told us and we were expected to contribute. Thats just the way it was. We didn't even question it. No allowance. Heck I didn't know what that was. We gathered eggs, Fed the Chickens and hogs, fed the horse that daddy used to plough with, hoed the garden,gathered the produce and helped put it away for the winter. I remember helping Mama carry no. two washtubs full of veggies from the garden. Then shuck, snap, peel, wash and cook. Then put it in jars and can it in a pressure cooker for winter. Girls helped clean house, wash the clothes on an old wringer washer, hung them on the line, brought them in when they were dry and sprinkled them and ironed everything. The boys pushed the old lawn mower which was just that, a push mower with no motor. I'm sure some of you will remember them, cut weeds with a big blade with a sharp hook and long handle. You swung the blade against the weeds and it cut them. I can't remember what they were called. They milked the cow and any other thing daddy needed their help on. What in the world is going on now! No respect for Parents, teachers or anyone in authority. It is so sad. We were taught these things. We were diciplined when we needed it, and we needed it. We were not handed everything on a silver platter we earned it. What in the world will those two boys do when they must be out on their own? I shudder to think. We had a carefree life and a simple one but we learned what must be done to survive with diginty in this wicked world of today. We had lots of fun and happiness with hardly anything at all. I feel sorry for some of the young people in the world today. They've really got it rough!!!
